We can ease your pain now. Artoon didn’t ruin the series; infact, they’ve recreated much of what was treasured from the original. The feel, presentation and gameplay are still intact, with a few added bits and pieces to make it stand on its own feet. Throwing eggs at enemies, collecting flowers and coins and licking enemies and making them pop out of your rear to form eggs - all these things remain, reforming the many memories we have from back in the day. Artoon has added in a few new additions of its own to add a different spin to the gameplay, but not with much success, unfortunately. The game doesn’t introduce anything extraordinary that hadn’t already been explored in the original, and much of what is new isn’t exactly well-executed.
Picking up from the original, Kamek is once again determined to rule the kingdom by kidnapping all the babies in the land, including Luigi. The multicoloured Yoshis once more find themselves pulling the weight of Mario, and a few of his friends, as they venture off to save Luigi as well as the rest of the babies in danger. This time round Yoshi will have to carry around Princess Peach, DK, Wario and even Baby Bowser, all of which enable Yoshi to inherit new and exciting abilities. For instance, Peach will enable Yoshi to soar higher in the air, DK can monkey across vines, Wario can attract coins and other metal objects and the evil Baby Bowser himself can breath fire. All of the ideas are nice in practice, but quickly wear thin after a few levels where the strategy to use their abilities is underused.
It’s disappointing, especially considering that Yoshi’s Island DS has nothing particularly new and exciting going for it in terms of fresh concepts. It would’ve been much more interesting to see epic boss battles where you had to swap between babies to finish off your foes, or even more puzzles that required more of the characters' gifts, instead of what seems to be a cramped offering where the good ideas aren’t offered up until the very end. The innovation is unfortunately lacking in Yoshi’s Island DS.
A few familiar faces make the cut.
Due to the DS’ dual-screen set-up, Yoshi’s Island DS is able to incorporate both screens into the gameplay. The double screen works well in areas where you’ll be given a much larger view of the level, as well as working exceptionally well in some of the game’s boss battles. However, the developer has also added in a blind spot in-between both of the screens, which makes it incredibly frustrating during some areas of the game. There are often times when important items and enemies are lost in the gap, which forces you to constantly stop and survey your surroundings before moving, and ultimately slows down the flow of the game completely. You’ll often miss coins and flowers purely because you begin an area with that gap and never think to look up. It’s an awkward experience during the game’s scrolling levels where you’re constantly guessing where platforms are due to the gap.
It seems like a little bit of a step back too in terms of implementation of the system’s features. Yoshi’s Touch & Go perfectly incorporated the touch screen to fire eggs, and even included a few neat ideas based around the system’s mic. While the exclusion of such features doesn’t hinder the experience, it makes us wonder how in fact this game is a DS title with such little use of the portable's features.
Thankfully, the game does do a good job of maintaining the original’s platforming madness, with many of the great inclusions making the cut. Levels are well-structured, with plenty of tough egg-throwing mechanics thrown in and a number of clever puzzles that add a nice new layer of strategy to the game. It’s unfortunate that Artoon didn’t expand on many of the functions that were provided with the DS, and even the inclusion of several new babies that could’ve easily extended the appeal of some levels. Overall, some of the levels feel a little undercooked, with the new inclusions adding very little over the original. That’s not to say the levels aren’t fun – they are – but they could’ve easily stood firmly on their own if the game utilised the features and ideas that were already set out for it, instead of recycling ideas from the original.
Visually, the game looks and feels identical to the original in every way, if not a little cleaner. There are a number of new and exciting characters and environments that are enriched with detail, bringing alive the whole storybook feel. On the opposite side of the scale is the game’s atrocious soundtrack, which couldn’t be any further from replicating the original’s perfect outing. The game lacks any distinct or memorable tunes at all, which unfortunately hinders the game’s overall enjoyment. The sound was a major addition of the original, and this game somehow manages to fail at creating any decent tunes at all.
The original's gameplay holds up exceptionally well.
There’s something missing from Yoshi’s Island DS, something so minor but yet so hurtful to the final product. The charm just isn’t there; things tend to feel tacked on with little to no execution. It seems that Artoon failed to realise many of the original’s greater portions and what exactly made them exceptional. So we are left with several ideas that could’ve been used much more effectively and a soundtrack that does the series absolutely no justice whatsoever. When compared to other DS titles such as New Super Mario Bros., it's confusing to see such a poorly implemented DS game.
Despite what seems to be a negative review, Yoshi’s Island DS is still a remarkable platformer that not only sees a return to one of history’s greatest games, but also sees the inclusion of a few neat ideas. The platforming aspects are still golden, and the emphasis on more puzzles helps to provide a rewarding experience. If it wasn’t for a few underused ideas, the black hole between the screens and a soundtrack that deserves to be never mentioned again, Yoshi’s Island DS could’ve easily claimed the original’s crown for being the ‘best platformer’. For now though, it'll have to settle for second best.
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